Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In computer networking, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits the signal at a higher level or higher power so that the signal can be received at a long distance away. Repeaters are devices that can function as both an access point (AP) and a station (STA) (or as both a host and a client), denoted as “repeater_AP” and “repeater_STA” herein, respectively. As a client or repeater_STA, the repeater functions strictly on a channel of repeater_AP, and can connect to another AP and/or repeater_AP. As a host or repeater_AP, a repeater can allow association from other STA's and repeater_STA's. Accordingly, connections between different repeaters can result in mixed topologies such as daisy chain (or line), star, mesh, ring, bus, and so on. FIG. 7 illustrates an example scenario 700 of some possible topologies of repeater networks. Undesirably, in some cases, a loop between repeaters can be formed, as illustrated in FIG. 8. Referring to FIG. 8, a loop is formed in a daisy chain (or line) topology, as shown in a first scenario 800A, and a loop is formed in a star topology, as shown in a second scenario 800B.
Existing solutions that attempt to address looping in repeater networks include a Spanning Tree protocol at Layer 3 and/or Layer 4. A problem with this approach is that it allows a loop-resulting connection to occur first to detect the existence of the resultant loop, and then breaks the loop by blocking the interface. However, this approach requires additional overhead in detecting and breaking loops.
Moreover, loops can be formed in a dual-band network with multiple repeaters. For example, when multiple clients or repeater_STA's on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands connect to different hosts or repeater_AP's, it is likely that loops would be formed. FIG. 9 illustrates an example scenario 900 of loops formation in a dual-band network of repeaters. Loops need to be avoided as they can choke the network.